Nationally recognized print or online news source:
Borg, Linda. (2008). School off Intervention list. The Providence Journal.
Summary: Every year in the fall, Elementry and Middle school students are being tested to make sure their schools are making the correct amount of progress, which is a standard that is set by the Department of Education of Rhode Island. This article is about a school, Nathaniel Greene Middle School and how it has moved off the state's intervention list because of how much progress the student's have made. In this article, it states that the faculty memebers at Greene are excellent at using test data for pinpointing the students that are struggling and why. Basically, this greatly defines what Response to Intervention is. Response to Intervention is when a student is struggling, the teacher can refer him/her to a teacher support team or in some cases, if the child is being helped and there is no progress, the child would be placed in a special education classroom.
Reaction: This article basically talked about Nathaniel Greene Middle School and how it used the (RTI). It made me get a better view of this policy because it described how much progress the school had made and how much work the teachers put into this. I feel as if this is an extremely important policy for education today and that all schools should have this because it seems like it really does help the children.


Analysis Article:
Konrad, Walecia. (2010). Resources for Parents of Students with Learning Disabilities. The New York Times
Summary: The Response to Intervention is a process that involves parents, teachers, peers, etc. In other words, it involves everyone. It is a process that children with learning disabilities go through before they recieve special services and a diagnosis is the beginning of the process. This is mainly when learning issues are adressed in the classroom and it usually with their teacher. At the end of this article, the author talks about all the bad aspects of RTI. Konrad states that this process may be a loss of precious time ,in some cases if a child is in intervention for too long. Also, she also states that it could be an expensive process for the state because it could involve a full-time aid or transferring to a private school.
Reaction: I feel as if the author of this article is right about the fact that it can be expensive to hire a full-time aid for a student and to go through the whole process but wrong about it being a bad thing. If a student needs an aid to progress in school, the student should get one. All in all, this article is acquarate in describing what RTI is and what the process really is. It not only tells about the good aspects but it also describes the bad aspects, as well which makes it a decent article.


Two articles from a scholarly journal:
Azzam, Amy. (2007). Improving Instruction for Students with Learning Needs. Educational Leadership.64, 5.
Summary: The major premise for having RTI is to prevent academic failure and for determining if a studen'ts lack of progress is because of a learning disability as opposed to other factors. There are multiple models whichj are tiered approaches of intense interventions to help children progress in school if they are struggling. One thing that this article mentions is an essential feature of the Response to Intervention which is the assessment of the quality of the general education ciriculum and instruction. At the end, it also mentions a similar process called Recognition and Response but this process includes more steps in helping the students progress.
Reaction: This article was the most informational and helpful for my research because it not only defined what RTI is but it also included information about the models that are used and other types of processes that are able to help the students. It mainly talks about the different tier models that the schools use and what they are used for. I feel that this is important to discuss these models because they use several methods for helping their children make adequate progress and the teachers use different instructional strategies.

(2011). Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing: Case Studies 3&4. National Council of Teachers of English.
Summary: The Response to Intervention is an alternative of (IDEA) which is Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The premise is that instructional interventions should be used to rule out the possibility of inadequate instructions before assuming that a child has a learning disability. There are several approaches like being monitored for a period of time, several assessments, and standardized tests at the end of each year. Students that have not improved in reading after eight weeks, will be put in a special program taught by a trained aid and students who still do not improve, will be put into a intensified intervention program. If the students still do not improve, they are then put into special education.
Reaction: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article because it discussed how it was an alternative to the IDEA and described exactly what it was. This article mainly talked about the different approaches that RTI takes and what they entail. Also, it talks about what happens if the students do not make any progress which is a very important part of RTI because if a student does not make any progress, they are put into special education.


Summary Article:
Mellard, D.F., Byrd, S.E., Johnson, E., Tollefson, J.M., Boesche, L. (2004). Foundations and research on identifying model responsiveness to intervention sites. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 27 (4), 243 -256.
Summary: Basically, the RTI approach allows for identifying children early for being at risk for social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties. There are different methods of determining and identifying adequate assesments measures but unfortunately, it is somewhat costly. Also, an important aspect of this process is the RTI model which is in place at most schools for primarily the academic interventions. This article gave an excellent expanation of what exactly happens in RTI including the fact that classroom teacher observation and referral were most common and a general education teacher would approach a special education teacher and ask for consultation and support. A prereferral intervention team was convened.
Reaction: The article, Foundations and research on identifying model responsiveness to intervention sites, was extremely informational and useful. It is where I got most of my information from. It talked about all aspects of our topic including the definition of RTI, the model that is used, the benefits and the downfalls. The whole process that the children go through is thoroughly explained. Also, at the end, the article included questions that were raised from teachers regarding the role of RTI in highschools which was interesting.